Do you think we're alone in the Universe?

Question

ponder this right now your in a room
-that room in a building
-that building in a street
-that street in a town
-this town in a city
-that city in a state
-that state in a country
-in a small rock made of metal in dirt we call earth
-Earth is an a massive galazy called the milkyway
-and the milkyway is in an universe filled with galazys
-and the universe is within another universe which goes to infinitum

Answer 1

First off, no bacteria on Mars!

Chances are we are alone.

For life to form you must be close enough to a star for warmth but far enough away to keep from frying.

The planet must have a magnetic core to create a stable magnetic field to prevent bombardment by cosmic rays.

There must be an atmosphere to provide sufficient pressure to allow enzymes to form organisms.

There must be large out planets in the system to collect most asteroids or life will never form.

There must be a moon to provide sufficient tidal activity to create variance in climate.

That eliminates 99.9999% of the planets.

From there, the atmosphere must be sufficiently hostile to promote natural selection, but not so hostile as to prevent life.

For intelligence to form, there must be sufficient competition between species to allow intelligence to provide survival advantage, but not so much that the species will die off.

There has to be sufficient predation for the intelligent species not to overpopulate and die off.

For language and technology to form, there must be sufficient rivalry and tribalism within the species to force the development of defensive technologies and aggriculture to enhance survival, but not so much that the species can destroy itself.

And if all that works out, you still got nutballs running for political office.

Chances are damn slim. Universe is a huge place, but I'm guessing we're alone. Wait, what's that light in the sky?

Answer 2

So far we've seen no verifiable evidence of other sentient species. That said, I believe with some certainty that somewhere in our galaxy at some past, present, or future time, a sentient species did/does/will exist.

Why haven't we heard from them?

Perhaps they are not technologically advanced enough to be heard. They may be mastering stone knives right now, or experiencing their own Rennaisance.

Perhaps they are here right now. Any species sufficiently advanced to travel interstellar distances would be able to hide or masquerade with ease. That Boeing 737 that just flew by may be a surveillance craft.

Perhaps they are so far away they will never notice us and vice versa.

Perhaps they existed a million years ago and died out.

Perhaps they will exist a million years from now.

It is really impossible to know for sure.

The Drake Equation suggests that there is sentient life out there. The Fermi Paradox casts doubt. Play around with the calculation form at the second link and see what you think.

Answer 3

Where did you get this idea? The prevailing thought is that our "observable" universe Is larger that the 14 odd billion years we can see. Beyond our observable universe, we do not know nor speculate.

We MAY be in just one "pocket universe"; and depending on your definition of universe, there could be a co-existing dimension (or several) within our "observable" universe; or there could be parallel universes (Many Worlds Theory) co-existing within our "observable" universe. Can other universes exist within and without our universe - most likely according to quantum physics.

Theoretically, we have already discovered 10 spatial dimensions and 1 time dimension with quantum theory. The only reason that these ideas remain as theories is because we don't have the technology to "observe" these phenomena, yet. When the new Cyclotron comes on-line in 2007, many of these issues may be resolved.

Answer 4

You are not alone, but we find you may not be able to make the commitment to establish viable breeding populations off your planet to insure against massive disaster. Over the centuries, your planet was a curious place to visit once or twice and was not considered very interesting . Sure, your wars showed us how undeveloped you are as a species. Your infantile,(in cosmic terms) dependence on god concepts does not bode well for you and neither does your penchant to breed beyond your planet's ability to sustain you. We are now showing an interest in you because it is not often that we get to observe a species commit suicide. You are so close to maturing as a sentient species and it will be a shame to see you kill yourselves. There are just not enough of you becoming rational enough to force the issue. You let the least among you determine your fate, so be it.

Answer 5

probbably, think about this, the prbability that there is other life out there is huge, its generally thought that there are so many stars that life could be on it must be ture. however, there is also the probability of life being found on earth witch is considerabley lower inface its so low were luck to be here at all.

this causes a pardox, because there are so many planets out there for life to be on but its higly improbable that life would appear on those planets.

so bsed on that info i would say yes but not very much life is out there compared to the size of it. 1/1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

of a chance probbably more.

i would also like to add that life can survive anyware they dont have to be warm or have sunlight, think about the life in the sulpha vents under the ocean where it was thought that life could not exist.

Answer 6

Even without your preaching, there is no way that we are alone. We can't be with more stars than we will ever be able to count or even see for that matter; there is another planet with life on it some where orbiting some star. Face it there is.

Answer 7

we are NOT alone, it would be pretty self centered to think that we are the only ones in an infinite universe. and plus, nasa wouldnt spend billions on a space craft that carries a golden disk with earth sounds and our position if they didnt think that there were others out there. =)

Answer 8

Gosh, if we really were the only planet with intelligent life on it, I think that would be the biggest fluke of nature possible! One might call it a miracle!

Answer 9

We arent alone. God wouldnt only create several billion people in an ever expanding universe. Also, science has proved that were not alone; living bacterium has been found on Mars.

Also, since this is true, are there aliens in heaven? (LOL)

Answer 10

No we're not alone in my opinion, just a quarantined object lesson in how not to run a planet.